


How to Care for Your Unhappy Chat

by Freedom_Shamrock



Series: Love Square Week 2016 [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, Love Square Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-09-07 00:13:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8775520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Freedom_Shamrock/pseuds/Freedom_Shamrock
Summary: Ladybug notices that Chat is a bit off today, and she has a plan to make him feel better.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Love Square Week  
> Day 2 - Prompt: Bonding

"Pound it!" Ladybug hopped off the hood of the car to close the distance between herself and Chat Noir, her arm extended for their usual end of battle fist bump.

He tapped his knuckles to hers. "A purrrleasure as always, milady." He gave her one of his extravagant bows, but it wasn't enough to distract her from the lack of energy in his voice.

"What's up Chat?" She dropped her arm and stepped closer, tilting her head when he tried to avoid her gaze. That in itself was unusual. Coupled with the sense that he'd been just a little off during the fight, and she was sure something was wrong. "What's wrong?"

His eyes widened slightly in alarm. "Oh look at that. I need to go detransform, catch you later, bug." He vaulted to the nearest rooftop.

Narrowing her eyes slightly, Ladybug flicked a wrist to loose her yo-yo. If he thought he could avoid talking to her by running away, he was clearly mistaken. And she would have to bring that error to his attention. Fresh and rested, he could often outrun her, but after an akuma, where he'd taken more hits than she liked, she was faster.

She'd caught up by the third rooftop, and kept pace for two more before calling out to him. "If you don't want to get tangled in my string, I need you to stop at the next roof."

"We don't have time for this," he insisted, pitching forward in a tumble roll to arrest his forward momentum. He glanced at his ring, covering it with his free hand. "I'm at two pads."

She snorted. "You just dropped to three." She threw her energy into a backflip, landing close to him. "I saw it. And I used lucky charm first, so..."

He sighed, his shoulders sagging.

After a moment of silence, she reached out to brush the shaggy blond tangles out of his face. They'd been partners for nearly three years, and she'd learned that while Chat presented as all fun and games, he had an amazing capacity to be serious. That drive appeared to have been thrown into full effect. "You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to," she said quietly. "But I'm here if you need me."

He caught her hand, gentle and cautious with his claws, and pressed her palm against his cheek. "Much as I'd love to take you up on that, I'm supposed to be somewhere right now."

She slid her thumb over his skin, soothing rather than pulling away like she did when they were flirting and teasing each other. "Not somewhere you want to be?"

"Correct." He sighed again. "I'm having a really crappy day, and…" He rolled his eyes skyward for a moment. "My handlers are going to be hugely pissed off that I'm not where I should be. And I have to tell you, I have no excuse for being on this side of town, so the standard, 'there was an akuma, so I had to hide' line isn't going to cut it."

"I'm sorry." She'd heard enough about his highly controlled over-scheduled life to know that this was just one of those miserable days he had to put up with. "You want to meet up when you're done?"

He shrugged. "It'll easily go 'til nine. You sure you want to?"

She could read the hope in his voice, despite his effort to squash it. "Nine works. I'll bring treats."

* * *

Ladybug pulled her Chat quilt out of her backpack and spread it out. The warehouse was the perfect place for this sort of meeting. It had a large flat roof, out of sight from the street. Most other buildings nearby were offices and other storage facilities. They were all empty this time of day.

She was pulling out a thermos when she heard her partner's feet land on the gravel behind her. "Hey Chat." She looked over her shoulder, pleased to see him staring at the blanket, a hint of a smile starting to tug at one corner of his mouth.

"What is this?" He waved one hand at the little scene in front of him.

"It's my Cheer Up Chat Kit." She smiled and caught his hand, pulling him down onto the soft fleece, black with lime green eye and white Cheshire grin appliques. The reverse was a durable canvas, with a ridiculous amount of batting sandwiched between the two layers.

"Oh my god," he whispered, crawling over the blanket, his fingers lightly brushing the cat faces. "This is the best thing I've seen in my entire life." He sprawled on his belly, rubbing his cheek against the fleece. "Where did you get this?"

"I made it." She set aside the thermos and container of cookies.

He pressed his nose into the fabric. "Oohh. It even smells like you, My Lady."

She giggled. "It should. I keep it in my room."

"Hmmmm." He rolled over and she half-expected him to start purring.

"Last time I decided roof tops are too cold and hard to picnic on, and I started this." She flipped up one corner to peek at the back. "I finished it this afternoon, because I wanted to pull out all the stops."

Holding her eyes with his, he inched over to ease his head into her lap. She felt him let out a huge breath as his eyes fluttered closed, the tension draining out of him at the same time. "You are so amazing."

"You want to talk about it?" she asked, sliding her fingertips into his hair. His cat side always came out more prominently when he was unhappy or stressed. She and Tikki both thought it was his kwami's attempt to soothe him.

"No," he murmured. "Can't fix it. May as well let it go."

"Whatever you think will help," she said softly. "I'm here for you."


End file.
